Days Gone By
by Raven-Leigh
Summary: Alucard comes back after thirty years to find an aging Integra and a more world-wise Seras. Time marches on, never ceasing and the organization is passed on to someone that abuses it. Alucard/aging!Integra, later Alucard/Seras. Past Pip/Seras implied.
1. When She Got Old Enough

Seras took a deep breath and released it slowly, an unnecessary thing that took Integra by surprise. She looked up from her paperwork and stared at Alucard's fledgling, smiling as she noted the look of concentration on her face. "You know, Seras... If you stare at that window any harder, you might just break it." She watched as the vampire snapped out of her revalry, fixed her gaze on her face. "What's on your mind, Seras? You seem to be...distracted?"

Thirty years. Thirty years since Alucard had been gone. He'd shown up the night before and since the night before, after he'd fed from Integra, he'd been in his coffin. When the night began, he'd not risen to come and sweep around like he used to do. It kind of bothered Seras, as she'd expected him to be front and center when he came back. She'd expected him to hover around Integra like he used to do, to be there. "Master isn't up yet. Shouldn't he have already been up? It's nearly midnight already."

Integra laughed and put her pen down next to her paperwork. "Is that what you're worried about? Alucard has been gone for thirty years, trying his absolute best to get back. The reason he's not up yet is simply because he's catching up on sleep. If you're that worried, then by all means, go down there and see about him. I'm sure that he'll be glad to see you. He missed you."

That didn't sound like her master. Seras wrinkled her nose and tipped her head over, picking at her fingernails. "Master didn't miss me. ...Did he?"

"He told me he did, and Alucard isn't one to mince words when it comes to things of the nature. Usually, at least. He might have gained a sense of whimsy in the time that he's been among humans." That had always amused her. She remembered asking her servant a time before why he'd turned Seras. She could still remember his answer, and held it close. She knew why, but she wasn't about to let Seras know the details of why and how. "Go see Alucard, see what he's up to, but I can guarantee that he's sleeping."

**********

And that was what he was doing. Seras stared into the darkness as she stepped into her master's dungeon. It was as bare as the day that she'd first stepped in there, save for his high-back chair, the table next to it, and the coffin over in the corner. She stared over at the sleeping quarters of the vampire and stepped a little closer. The dungeon had always creeped her out. She'd been able to make her own portion of it a little more manageable, a little bit of a personal touch installed in it, but Alucard's part of the dungeon had remained as filthy and desecrated as a grave. He didn't clean it, he didn't care to clean it, and he wouldn't let anyone else clean it either. There were still chains on the wall from days gone by, and she noted how well taken care of they looked in comparison with the dank, smothering surroundings. Did Alucard take care of them? Hardly, she figured. He had better ways of torturing humans and other things than chaining them to the wall. She didn't know what he would use them for, but she figured that if he used them at all, it was likely not for the purposes they were meant to be used for.

Seras took a few steps further toward the coffin, feeling nervous, as if she didn't belong there. The smooth black wood shone with the little bit of light that streamed into the massive open door, and it seemed to scream 'Go away!'. She walked right up to the edge of the coffin, trembled a little, then leaned down to knock on the edge. Just, before her knuckles were able to touch the edge, the lid jerked up suddenly. She screamed and jumped back, but calmed down as she noted she was staring down into the grinning face of her master. Vlad Tepes, Vlad Dracul, Alucard the Vampire, the No Life King. How...ironic all of his names were. Seras sighed and stepped closer. "Master, why are you still asleep? It's midnight."

Alucard raised from the coffin, stretching as he peered up at his buxom fledgling. "Why... Thank you, police girl. I have no sense of internal timing and absolutely no way to figure out what time it is. My, it's midnight? What a surprise." Seras could be clueless sometimes, but she caught that sharp edge of sarcasm in his voice. "Is the darkness dark?"

She ignored the psychotic grin on the vampire's face and huffed at him. "Master, that isn't funny. I came to see if you're alright. I figured you would be up and about." She was surprised to see his face fall slightly, watch him look at the lid of the coffin, away from her. "Master?"

"Ah... I needed rest and a time to think. Nothing more. I came back and things have changed. Lots of changes have occurred and really..." He pushed his hand up into his hair, fanning the fly-away strands from those eyes. Seras caught her undead breath when she saw his eyes and the hair that flopped right back over them. "I don't know if I still belong, police girl." The words sank in and she felt confused. She didn't stop him, though. Alucard rose from his coffin and stepped out of it, wandering past her. He was so close that she could smell him, and it made her stomach turn a strange flip that she couldn't explain away. She wandered after him as he sat in the high-back chair and sat down. Seras took her place at his feet. He looked down at her and made her smile. "I don't know if I still belong. Things have gone on without me. Things have gone just fine. Life didn't end, life continued. Integra has aged." He smiled weakly. "She's turned even more beautiful in her age, but..."

"But, master?"

"But she's getting old and it disturbs me. Not because of the way she looks-" He dropped his voice slightly. "Master is going to die sooner than she was before I left. I'm going to miss her, Seras."

The fledgling felt her heart skip a beat. "Is that why you're so depressed, sir?"

"In a way. I never really pictured Integra getting old. I planned on turning her when she got old enough. I just knew that I could wheedle my way into her heart, into her soul." He swallowed and stared at the wall. He didn't know why he was talking to Seras, but maybe, just maybe it was because no one else was there to talk to and he needed to vent. Thirty years of work to get back, and he felt more empty than normal. "She's going to die and free me from my servitude. But with no Integra around... I love her, Police Girl. When she's gone, I don't want to be around. I fought for thirty years to get back to her." He caught her expression and smiled sadly. "Of course, you too. But she's my master. It's hard to explain what I'm feeling because I don't think I've felt this way in a tangible sense ...since I was a human."

Seras felt disturbed as she saw a stream of blood pour from the corner of his visible eye. She guessed that the same was happening with the other, but his hair was falling across his face. "She'll be gone someday soon and we'll be free. But I never want to be, Seras."

"Master... Are you scared?"

"... Yes." Seras Victoria never felt a stronger urge to hug her master. Therefore, he forgave her when she actually did, and went as far as to circle one of his arms around her in return.


	2. Please Master

"Master has cancer." The words still hung in the air oddly. Alucard didn't know how to understand them, didn't know how to deal with them. It had been ten years since his return, and though he'd become closer to Integra, had kissed her, had loved her… "Master has cancer. And it's in the late stages. Master isn't going to live very long. I'm scared." The dead tone of his words set him on edge, made him tight. It hurt his cold, dead, uncaring heart, and he didn't know how to even begin to understand.

Ten years since he'd returned, ten years since he'd seen how frail her body had become. Yet, through all of the wrinkles, through the missing eye, through the racking cough, through her voice which was weakening day by day, he loved her. Oh, Alucard loved Integra so much that he would give his unlife to her to extend hers by one day. She was the most important person in his entire universe, and he was watching her crash and burn.

Integra coughed sharply, wheezing to take a breath. "Father died similarly. I'm simply following in the Hellsing name, Alucard." She could see the way he looked down at her, smiled at the expression of sadness. "It's going to be fine. You'll be free, finally." She closed her eye. "You can walk the night unhampered by a mere mortal. You can use your entire set of abilities to wreak havoc upon the earth without the Hellsing Organization holding you back. Alucard… Dracula. From the time I became a young woman, you were my friend and my servant. I set you free."

The words hung in the room like mist. Alucard's mouth opened, his fangs glistened in the dim lights, but not with blood lust. With horror. "Master… No."

"I'm no longer your master. Alucard, you're a free vampire. Go and spend the rest of your unlife doing what you wish to do instead of following the whims of an old bat that's breathing her last." As if to accent that sentiment, she fell into a coughing fit. Alucard smelled the taint of blood in the air when she withdrew her hand.

"Master, you can't leave me alone in the world."

"Utter nonsense, Alucard. You've been a grown man for the past five hundred years, before I was born. You'll unlive on past my time and then on past the time that Seras should have died… And you'll be with her for a long time. A long, long time." Integra smiled up at him, taking a deep breath only to start into racking coughs again. "You'll do as you wish for the rest of my life."

Alucard swept himself down into an arcing bow, eyes closed. "Then master, I wish to remain, to care for you in your time of need."

"You've always done that. You've always been at the beckon call of a human, always done what I asked even though you didn't do it to the letter."

"Ah, master, I didn't do it to what you imagined as the letter of your commands, but in the end, your objectives were always completed, and you were always left alive." He leaned over her, smiling as his face neared hers. She was still as beautiful as the day he'd met her as a teenager. She reminded him of her father, always strong-willed, always sure of herself. Even in her dying moments, she reminded him of years past, of her laughs, her smiles, her crying fits, her screaming fits, her anger, her depression, her envy, her pride, her sins. She was most human when she was sinning. Otherwise she would be an angel. He sucked in an unnecessary breath and then grasped her hand, holding it tightly. "Master… Please don't leave me."

"I have to leave you, Alucard. Cancer. I'm dying, remember?" She smiled up at him, started gasping for breath. "That's the way things go. Something is given life, then life is taken away when it's time. This is the way that things are supposed to go. And I'm so tired, Alucard."

He dropped his voice to a seductive whisper, leaned in closer, lips barely inches from hers. He lapped at the blood that was left behind there, cleaned them off for her. "But master… You could walk the night, live forever. The opportunity is there. You're still able, you're still a virgin. All of these years… You've waited. What have you waited on? For me? Did you wait for me master?" He knelt on the edge of the bed, staring into her eye. Blue met red and he could sense the smile that formed on her face though he didn't look down to see it. Tears of blood speckled at the corners of his eyes. "Master, you waited for me, didn't you? You planned for this? To go until you couldn't go anymore? To wait to walk the night when you had no other choice?"

"Alucard-"

"Master, let me help you. I don't want you to die. I have to hear your voice. Please let me hear your voice. I'm begging you. I never beg. Please fulfill my wishes. Haven't I been a good servant? You've been a very good master, and I know you're still a good master. Please join me."

Integra took a slow, rattling breath. She still held the smile on her face as her eye closed. "Alucard, I can't join you."

"Please, fulfill my wish. Have I ever asked for anything from you, master? Anything at all?" He could hear her heart stopping. "Master, please! I never say please, PLEASE." Her heart stopped beating.

Alucard stared at her face as it relaxed, then dove in, sank his fangs into her throat. The gush of life pooled into his mouth and he closed his eyes, drank, even though he knew that it was too late to save her. He had to try.

**********

Seras sniffled as she stood in the rain, staring down at the grave. "Master… She's gone. Master, why can't you let it go? You're free now. Why can't you move on?"

Alucard didn't move a muscle as he sat atop the headstone. She watched the rainwater drip from the black strands of hair, but her master didn't say anything.

Freedom was very relative to the time and situation, and the No Life King was anything but free.


	3. Recovery Mission

Seras stared up at the walls. Those walls used to be so strong, and so solid. There used to be light streaming in from the Hellsing evening room. There were soldiers pouring in and out, talking, laughing, and drinking, passing jibes with one another until they were called for something or another. There had been camaraderie galore throughout the estate, but now? Now it was nothingness. The walls were in disrepair, the wood floors bucked up and warped from the cold European winters, the lights shut off, some entirely missing. Walter had kept it in such good repair, but after he was gone, Integra had hired some help. They'd kept it in good condition until Integra's death and then gradually, everything had gone to hell.

Seras sighed and walked down the old hallway, listening to the way her boots clunked and made the bucked-up floor planks squeak. Ten years since Integra Hellsing died, ten years since master had slipped into himself and lain to rest in the basement. The young vampire gripped the frame of Integra's old room, peering into it. The bed was made up the way Alucard had left it, sheets tucked and made perfectly. There was a thick layer of dust and mold spread out throughout the room, the mirror dim with grime, and a large hole in the ceiling from the roof sinking in from weather and disrepair.

The woman stepped through the doorframe, looking around at what had once been and felt a sense of loneliness and sadness. She saw his tracks. They were light, as if he hadn't visited in a week, but they were certainly there. Alucard visited Integra's room? Then he wasn't truly laid to rest. He was active somewhat, she realized, and perhaps that was a good thing. At least he wasn't wallowing entirely in his own self-pity. She stepped down on one of Alucard's tracks, comparing the size of her boot to the other's. The same as it had always been, but she'd never be able to do what he'd done, fill his shoes. Or Integra's.

The fledgling wandered over to the late woman's closet and opened it, peering in. The racks of suits were still there, untouched by all but the undead's hands. She looked down at Integra's shoes, placed in the way the Hellsing had left them. They were no longer spotless, but certainly uniform in the way that they were organized. Seras shifted, leaning to look deeper and almost screamed, jumped back definitely. She'd thought she'd seen someone in the room with her, standing behind her in the mirror, but when she looked around, no one else was there. The vampire shivered and leaned in, looking again, but she only saw her own startled eyes staring back at her.

Seras took a few steps back and sighed, shaking her head as she closed the closet. She turned from it and wandered toward the bed, staring at the rusty brown blood spots that were still on the white (now yellowed) trimming of the covers. Where Alucard had tried to change Integra, but it had been too late. She could remember walking into the room, finding him in tears. It had been hard getting him to let go of her body, but finally he'd relented and melted into the walls, retreated to his dungeon. She'd tried to get him to come out, but he'd only been consoled by sitting on top of the Hellsing woman's grave, staring up at the moon as if she were there, looking down upon him.

It made Seras sad for several reasons. Integra was gone, that was the main reason. Alucard had loved her enough to beg her to stay. She'd never known her master had the capability of love, but he'd shown it in the last moments of his master's life. Seras figured he'd probably shown it in many times when he and the last Hellsing were alone, but the only thing she'd had to draw information on was the way he'd smiled at her. Alucard never smiled at anyone like he had the blonde, and Seras had to admit that it made her jealous.

Integra had refused to stay with Alucard, yet he'd been mourning on her grave. In her opinion, her friend didn't exactly deserve the attention. It was vindictive, she figured, but the years had changed things. She saw things with a little more experience than she had back then, and when she thought of the streams of blood that marred the beautiful face of her master, her keeper, she felt angry. Sadness mixed with, but anger was definitely there.

The fledgling wandered out of the bedroom, turning and closing the door. She sighed and rested her forehead against the cold wood, ignored the aching in her heart. She heard nothing save for birds in the loft, the old creaking of that which once had glory. She looked up and around, through the darkness. "Integra… You should have let him have you as a bride. He would have been happy. He could've made you very happy because he loved you a lot." Master didn't love Seras, that was for sure. She hadn't seen him in ten years, and coming there felt like breaking into a tomb, like she was desecrating the memorial that he'd set up for the lost woman.

Seras took a deep, unnecessary breath, then started walking. She had to go to the basement, she knew that was where he was. She could still sense him after all of that time, knew he was merely dozing in preparation for confrontation, meal, or both. And she hoped she wouldn't be considered either.

**********

Alucard cracked his eyes open. Too long since he'd seen civilized humanity. Too long since he'd seen her smile. Too long. What was time to him anymore? The vampire stared at the dark wall of his dungeon, listening to the rats scurry around in his home. The old, desolate home. It was so lonely, so depressing, and that was the way he liked it. He was mourning, would forever be in mourning there, waiting for the past to right itself, perhaps for Integra to crawl up out of the grave as if it were simply a delayed reaction from his bite.

He shifted, though he had no need to, draped his arm across his knee. The floor was cold, but torture was the way the world went, so he relished the feeling. The vampire only left to feed upon stragglers that were around, and even then, for some reason he couldn't find it in him to drain them entirely. He left them alive unless their deaths were unavoidable, a tribute he supposed to his beloved Hellsing that had loved humanity too much to let his kind mar and desecrate it.

His ears twitched as he heard another sound. Footsteps. The vampire growled low in his throat, mind shifting through possibilities. Was it a straggler come to loot his beloved's possessions? Perhaps a curious teenager bent on getting a cheap thrill by exploring an old place? Never did he suspect the one that shoved the dungeon door open without any effort at all. Alucard's eyes widened as he took in the different clothing, but same body, same eyes, same clueless expression.

He hadn't seen Seras Victoria in ten years, and his fledgling still looked the same.

Alucard was glad of that.

"Police girl." He watched the girl jump, reel, look around for him. Even with a vampire's sight, he could tell she had trouble. He was hard to see. His hair was black, his clothing was black, and the only switch in color happened to be his skin and his eyes, and it wasn't immediately realized what with the table and chair, broken nearby but still there. "It's been ten years since we've seen one another. Do you still chase your master? Or have you found another master?"

Seras was glad to hear his voice, glad to know that he was as strange as the last day she'd seen him in a sane state of mind, if he ever had been sane. The fledgling smoothed her t-shirt down and stepped further into the dungeon, shutting the door behind her in simple manners. She shifted and wandered in Alucard's general direction, folding her arms across her chest. "Ah, master, it's been ten years, but I don't have another master. And I haven't chased you at all. You've been right here and I could've caught you."

The childish tone was endearing, music to his ears. Alucard was privately glad that Seras had decided to visit the grave of the manor, glad that she was there to brighten the gloom even the slightest. "Such a pretty fledgling in the middle of doom and gloom. Tell me, little fledgling, my little servant. What desires you of your master, having been gone this long and refound me?"

"Master, you were never lost. You've merely been here, mourning what's gone, never finding as you look every night for something that might show up again." She was surprised that she didn't hear him growling, continued. "Master, Sir Integra wouldn't want you mourning the way that you are. She would want you out in the night, chasing things down, doing things that would help the Hellsing Organization."

"Pardon me?" Alucard sat up, narrowing those crimson eyes. "The Hellsing Organization died with Integra. She never had a child, never did anything to continue her legacy, and I mourn that. … She would have had a beautiful child." iShe would have been even more beautiful on my arm in her ball gown, for all eternity./i

"No, but I've heard tell of a child she adopted."

"Utter nonsense. I'd have known of something like that if that were to be, and she would have passed ownership of myself over to the child."

"Not if she wanted to free you. Sir, Integra loved you." Seras wandered over and knelt down in front of her master, sighing. "She loved you enough and trusted you that she freed you before she shucked her mortality away and rose to the heavens. She didn't pass you over to the new owner of Hellsing. The boy was fourteen back when she died and to save him from taint, he was housed away from the organization altogether and briefed as he had to be up until she passed."

Fourteen? The age that Integra had been when she'd become Head Hellsing. "So he gained custody of the organization and everything within when Integra died? Is he a good master?"

"I told you, I don't have anymore masters. You're the only one. And no, he's not a very good person." She shuddered. "He uses his power in the company to do things in the Hellsing name that are… I abhor the little bastard. I've nearly been destroyed twice by his priests-"

"Priests?" Alucard shot her a look that sent chills up her spine. "They're employing priests?"

"Ah. Yes, I forgot. See… He's become integrated into the Vatican. His vampire hunters are Iscariot members. Heinkel is one of them." Seras gained a smirk that Alucard had never seen before. It ignited a little fire in his stomach. "I enjoy our altercations. However, they're dangerous. Very dangerous to both human and undead. They're using their authority to try and cast a religious net across the world. That is why I've come to interrupt your mourning, master. I can't stop them by myself. I've tried for ten years. It's time to ask for some help from someone older, more experienced."

"Let me get this straight, my dear, beloved little police girl." He paused, as if gathering his thoughts, but really he was trying to hide his own wicked grin, the one that would mirror his fledgling's. "You want me to interrupt my forever-mourning to accompany you to the surface to scout out some Iscariot priests and lay waste to them in order to continue Hellsing's good name in good hands?"

"Master… We could run Hellsing. We could keep her memory alive." She watched him raise, watched him stare at the ceiling. She reached out and snagged his massive hand, squeezed it tightly. "Master, imagine it. Integra Hellsing, doing her will even as she's in the grave. Isn't it tempting, master?"

The ancient vampire, the No Life King, smiled down at his fledgling. "Seras Victoria, if you ever learned anything from me in the time that we've been coupled together as master and servant, you have certainly learned charm and persuasion." He squatted down, his face mere inches from the other vampire's. "Now tell me. When do we start and have you fed lately?"


End file.
